Pages

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Medicine no longer route to riches, says MMA

KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — Malaysian parents have the notion that the medical profession is the route to riches, but the country’s premier organisation reperesenting doctors, the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA), begs to differ.

In an editorial in its latest issue of the News Bulletin, Berita MMA, its editor, Dr Kuljit Singh, said: “The medical profession in the country today seems to have a bleak future as far as monetary gain is concerned.

“We have seen the income of the general practitioner in some parts of the country dwindling and even specialists in some private hospitals seem to struggle.”

He attributed this to the high number of medical colleges and the increase in number of new medical graduates entering the profession.

At present there are more than 25 medical colleges in the country which are expected to produce about 4000 doctors annually within the next few years.

Dr Kuljit Singh said the MMA was concerned with this development because there was a shortage of places for clinical training for these students.

“Almost all major hospitals in the country have affiliated medical colleges and some hospitals even cater to more than one medical university.

“So, what sort of clinical training could these students get?” he said.

He called on the government to pull the plug immediately on the mushrooming of colleges so as not to weaken the healthcare delivery system in the near future.

He said that in developing countries the criteria for medical school entrance qualification and selection were extremely rigid, resulting in the decline of medical graduates.

“However, in Malaysia, we would advocate a balance between the correct number of quality medical graduates and high standards of healthcare to fulfill the needs our country as we progress,” he added. — Bernama